South San superintendent suspended with pay

South San Antonio Independent School District superintendent Ronald Durbon answers questions from the media after a board meeting Monday in which he was suspended.

Photo By Express-News file photo

South San Superintendent Ron Durbon, seen in this file photo, denies any wrongdoing and contends that school board President Connie Prado and trustee Karyn Tomlinson are retaliating for his son’s lawsuit.

Photo By Robin Jerstad/Special to the Express-News

South San Independent School District Athletic Director Gary Durbon receives congratulations after the school board meeting was canceled.

Photo By Robin Jerstad/Special to the Express-News

Gary Durbon (right) talks with his attorney Jerry Hernandez. Durbon, the South San ISD's athletic director, is suing two board members for defamation because of their publicly talking about allegations that he denies.

The South San Antonio Independent School District board voted 4-3 Monday night to suspend Superintendent Ron Durbon while the district investigates how he handled allegations that his son, the district's athletic director, looked at pornography on a school computer.

"We want to get on with our district's business," board president Connie Prado said. "If the superintendent has done nothing wrong, then he has nothing to worry about."

Durbon, who makes nearly $150,000 a year, will be on administrative leave with pay until the investigation, which could take weeks to months, is over.

Prado said attorneys for the district will help the board select someone to conduct an external investigation on whether Durbon took appropriate action regarding the allegations that his son, Gary Durbon, accessed pornography as far back as 2003.

Prado said she believes that there might have been a cover-up and that employees might have been intimidated or fired for reporting the matter. Gary Durbon denies the allegations, and Ron Durbon denies a cover-up.

The votes, taken in front of about 100 people who packed the boardroom, show the division on the board, with three siding with Prado and three supporting Ron Durbon.

Trinidad Mata, who voted against the suspension, told the audience that Prado failed to provide enough evidence to justify it. After the motion passed, Prado threatened to ask police officers to escort Mata out of the room because he repeatedly interrupted her as she was speaking.

The votes cap a tense battle between Durbon and Prado, who have become the main protagonists in the latest chapter of South San's decades-long political drama.

Prado, 62, and Durbon, 70, are at odds because he believes that she is retaliating against him for a lawsuit that Gary Durbon filed against her and trustee Karyn Tomlinson. Gary Durbon claims in the lawsuit that they defamed him for spreading the pornography allegations.

Ron Durbon last week won a temporary restraining order to stop Prado and Tomlinson from participating in a meeting about his evaluation. But a judge dissolved the order a few days later.

The crowd didn't seem surprised and mostly took the news quietly, aside from two women who confronted each other after one shouted toward Prado that her husband, Raul Prado, a former councilman who served time in prison, be investigated for his influence on the decision.

Outside the meeting, four people displayed signs in support of Durbon, including one held by JoeJo Savage that read: "You can't spell Connie without con."

"What she is doing is orchestrating putting in her own puppets so she can run the district," Savage said.

Prado denied that in an interview later and said she was elected to hold the superintendent accountable.

"The people on the board have a mind of their own," Prado said.

She said Zeigler emerged as the board's pick for interim superintendent because she is the only qualified candidate who is not in the central office, where most of the investigation will take place, and so does not have a stake in the outcome.

Durbon said Prado's zeal to get him suspended comes from a personal vendetta.

But Prado said she is pushing for an investigation now because affidavits related to the lawsuit were made public last month and allege that Durbon covered up for his son.

Durbon said he has served as district superintendent twice, most recently since 2005, and worked in the district for 39 years.

Prado joined the board in 1998, having won election to her husband's seat after he was elected to the City Council.

Despite the fighting, Prado and Durbon said they could work together again if the investigation clears Durbon.

"I hope to be back," Durbon said. "I've done nothing wrong, but I just hope everything with the investigation is done proper and fairly."